The Community Based Learning Project, or more commonly known as the “CBL” project, has been a mix of interviews, stress, and cramming for sophomores over the past six years. The project, which was required for students in Honors Literature, was often considered a “mini senior project”. For the assignment, students were asked to identify a problem that is prevalent in society today and propose a solution. Along with many other changes to the Honors Lit curriculum this year, instructors Nathan Moseley and Molly Spisak shifted the project after years of mediocre implementations.

“Kids came up with some really good solutions,” Moseley said, “But the execution of those solutions were subpar at best.”

The revised version of the project, which now goes by the name of “I am Westside”, will require students to create documentaries that include interviews with people who are impacted with the topic of the group’s choosing. Moseley hopes that by telling peoples stories, our community’s perception of Westside will shift.

“Over the years, the demographic of Westside has changed,” Moseley said. “There are stereotypes of Westside being a wealthy, white school but that’s not reality. Yet people outside of Westside don’t necessarily know that.”

In addition to representing the Westside community in a more positive way, Moseley thinks the new version of the project will help students to understand many of the struggles that people face while suffering from alcoholism, poverty, depression, etc.

“[Spisak and I] thought, ‘What better way than to share peoples stories of people at Westside’ The idea [of I Am Westside] is that we make documentaries of peoples lives. If the topic were alcoholism, the student would tell someone’s story of what it’s like.”